The National Institutes of Health (NIH) is offering the NIH Directors Transformative Research Awards, a federal grant opportunity aimed at supporting innovative and groundbreaking research that has the potential to significantly alter scientific paradigms or improve clinical approaches. This program encourages applications from individual scientists or groups proposing bold research across various disciplines relevant to the NIH mission, with no preliminary data required for submission. Approximately $8 million is available for Fiscal Year 2026, targeting around seven awards, each with a maximum project period of five years, and key deadlines include an opening date on August 3, 2025, and a submission deadline of September 4, 2025. Interested applicants can find more information and guidelines at the NIH Grants website or contact NIH Grants Information at grantsinfo@nih.gov for inquiries.

RFA-RM-25-003-Full-Announcement.html

RFA-RM-25-003.html

The National Institutes of Health (NIH) is announcing the NIH Director's Transformative Research Awards under a Common Fund initiative, aiming to support groundbreaking research with the potential to significantly alter scientific paradigms or improve clinical approaches. This funding opportunity encourages applications from individual scientists or groups proposing innovative research across diverse disciplines relevant to NIH's mission, without requirement for preliminary data. Approximately $8 million will be available in Fiscal Year 2026, targeting about seven awards, each with a maximum project period of five years, depending on available appropriations and merit of submissions.

Key application deadlines include an opening date on August 3, 2025, and a submission deadline of September 4, 2025. Eligible applicants range from higher education institutions to federal government entities. The review process emphasizes significance, innovation, and feasibility, seeking to identify research with extraordinary transformative potential. Applicants must adhere to specific submission guidelines and registration requirements, emphasizing robust planning despite high-risk research. The initiative underscores NIH's dedication to advancing innovative approaches that address entrenched scientific challenges and enhance public health outcomes.

https://grants.nih.gov/grants/guide/rfa-files/RFA-RM-25-003.html

The NIH Directors Transformative Research Award Program supports individual scientists or groups of scientists proposing bold, groundbreaking, exceptionally innovative, original, and/or unconventional research with the potential to create new scientific paradigms, establish entirely new and improved clinical approaches, or develop transformative technologies. To support innovative and novel research across the vast NIH mission, individuals from diverse backgrounds (including those from underrepresented groups; see Notice of NIHs Interest in Diversity) and from the full spectrum of eligible institutions in all geographic locations are encouraged to apply to this Notice of Funding Opportunity. Applications in all topics relevant to the broad mission of NIH are welcome in all topic areas relevant to the broad mission of NIH, including, but not limited to, behavioral, social, biomedical, applied, and formal sciences and topics that may involve basic, translational, or clinical research. No preliminary data are required. Projects must clearly demonstrate, based on the strength of the logic, a compelling potential to produce a major impact in a broad area of relevance to the NIH. The NIH Directors Transformative Research Award is a component of the High-Risk, High-Reward Research (HRHR) Program of the NIH Common Fund. Towards the objective of funding the best possible science, the Office of Strategic Coordination and the Center for Scientific Review are piloting a process for initial peer review of applications received in response to this FOA in which the identity of the investigators and institutions are withheld until the last phase of review. Instructions for anonymizing components of the application are given in Section IV and must be carefully followed. A description of the review process is given in Section V.

See Section VII. Agency Contacts within the full opportunity announcement for all other inquires.

NIH Grants Information&lt;br/&gt;grantsinfo@nih.gov

Buyer

Eligible Applicants

Funding Category

Funding Instrument

Opportunity Category

Cost Sharing or Matching Requirement

Original Source

Additional Information